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Thursday, October 1, 2009

My Goals: 10/01/2009

Lets take a quick look at where we are. Wrath of the Lich King was released a little over 11 months ago. The first two big content patches have been released. Cataclysm, the next expansion, was announced a little over a month ago. The third, and reportedly final, content patch is likely to hit the PTR very soon, and Blizzard has said several times they would like to release expansions more quickly then they have in the past.

Patch 3.1 was released 5 months after release. Patch 3.2 was released 4 months after patch 3.1. At this pace we could see the expansion in early to mid summer 2010 or late summer to early fall if you give it a little padding. Of course, these are just slightly educated guesses, and could be very far from the truth. However, I think it is reasonable to assume that WotLK is at least in its midlife and could be well on its way to retirement. With that in mind I would like to lay out some goals for the time we have left in WotLK.

Raiding:These are pretty easy to guess.

Goal: Kill everything on the on the hardest mode possible before a 3.0 style of nerf. I really like that I killed everything in TBC before WotLK was released, but a good portion of the kills were not progression kills, and we didn't get anything down in Sunwell before the big nerf. I would like to improve upon that in WotLK.Probability:Very Good. Times have been a little rough lately, but the guild was very stable from when I joined last year in September to May of this year. If we can repeat that stability again then we should kill everything. If not, it will be difficult.

Goal: Get all e-peen enhancers. This goes right along with "kill everything," but I want to emphasise it. Basically, I want all of the 310% drakes and all of the titles that mean anything. I would love to get the server first titles, but I know that's not going to happen. Everything else though is up for grabs.Probability:Good. My biggest worry here is the Ulduar Meta. We are very close to killing Mimiron hard mode. Vezax and Crazy Cat Lady should go down fairly easily once we focus on them. The big obstacles are Yogg+1 and time. We have at least 30 days to get this all done, and I think we can do it in that time if we focus on it, but you never know. Luckily we probably have a little more time then that. My new guess is that they will remove toe drakes with patch 3.3.

Alts:My Warlock and my Priest are already level 80. I am doing some raiding with the Warlock, but I don't have any big hopes for either of them. I wouldn't mind completing all of the phasing for them but that is unlikely to happen.

Goal: Level Grayvik the Mage to 80.I know I can buy the herbs of the AH with out much problem, but I don't like not having gatherers incase I need to farm a little bit. My mage is entirely a gatherer with Herbilism and Skinning as his two professions. This may not seem like a big deal, but I like the peace of mind and it will support some of my other goals.Probability: Almost guaranteed. he's level 72 at the moment. Its really just a matter of time.

Goal: Level Graybel the Shaman to Northrend.I would love to get him to 80, but that is not my primary concern. He is a skinner/leatherworker, and I want to get him to a point where he can max out his professions.Probability: 50/50. He is currently level 23 and has a long way to go. In the past it has taken me about 8 or 9 months to get to max level. Grayvik is taking a little longer, but that is understandable given the expansion and the time I took to level my 3 level 80s. I think I can do it. I just depends on when the expansion hits and how well my other goals go.

Goal: Level Graydeth the Death Knight to Northrend.You haven't heard about this guy before. I started him to see the Death Knight starting area, I haven't played him much. However, I think he would be a good choice to level up a Blacksmith. A this point I would level him up purely for the professions.Probability: Doubtful. Again, time is the big issue. This goal is pretty far down the list and I doubt I will get to it by the time the next expansion is released if I'm honest with myself.

Professions:On my three 80's I have Alchemy, Inscriptions, Tailoring, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, and Mining maxed out or within a few points of being maxed out. Skinning and Herbilism aren't far behind on my mage.

Goal: Max out Fishing.I hate fishing. I don't like it, but there are some advantages to being able to fish. I would like to have it maxed out to take advantage of those benefits just in case I need them.Probability: 50/50. Thank god for the changes they made to Fishing during WotLK. At the end of TBC I was about 50 points away from Max skill, and I couldn't bring myself to level it. Now, I knock out a little at a time doing fishing dailys or just to kill some time in Dalaran. I think I will get there but who knows.

Goal: Max out Leatherworking on Graybel.I would be nice to have a leather worker to back up Graylo since he can wear leather. Plus, there are other opportunities I would like to be able to take advantage of.Probability: 50/50. If I get him to Northrend, he will max out leather working. I've used the skins farmed by my mage to level his leather working and his skill is well beyond his current level. The only thing currently holding back is skill is his own level.

Goal: Max out Blacksmithing on Graydeth.I want this purely to make gold.Probability: Doubtful. I think if I level him it won't be hard to max out his professions, but I doubt I have time to get him there.

Goblinish Goals:As you can probably tell, a lot of my goals have been leading up to this one.

Goal: Have 100k gold when the expansion is released.If you want to make a lot of gold in WoW you have to find the imperfections in the market and beat them to death. Since everything in WoW is available to every player, these imperfections are usually the result of a lack of knowledge. Consumers don't realize that they could buy the herbs for that glyph for just a couple of gold and buy the glyph for 20g instead. Producers don't realize they can make 1000% profit on an item so they don't enter the market. So the people who see the opportunities make a killing. However, even if you see these opportunities you need the capital to take advantage of them. That is why I want 100k gold.Probability: Iffy. You may have read the report about the MMO-Champion guy making 125k gold in 7 weeks. That makes my goal sound easy, but lets face the facts for a second.

First of all he makes his living off of WoW. He is probably very knowledgeable about the different tricks, and can have a computer open next to him at all times to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. I don't know how he did it for sure, but I would be surprised if he wasn't camping the AH to some extent. Most people just don't have that kind of time.

Second, not all servers are the same. Some are very undeveloped, with few competitors. In such a situation your able to sell your goods at a fairly high price for a lot of profit. Other servers will have a tighter market. Take mine for example. According the the MMO-Champion guides you should sell your glyphs for a minimum of 4 or 5 gold, buy eternal earth and eternal shadow for around 10g or less, and buy green gems for around a gold apiece. On my server, 4 or 5 gold is often the market price for Glyphs, good luck trying to sell them for more. The market price for eternal earth and shadow are around 15g and rarely goes lower then 10. Green Quality Gems go for 2g or more.

Over time, imperfections will be worked out of the market as more people discover the opportunity, thus the market will be come less profitable. My point is that my server is pretty far along that curve. I can easily see several sellers that I am competing with and that getting to 100k is going to take a while if it happens at all.

hi Graylo, i hav been a fan of ur blog for a while. I deeply like ur work and theory crafting ideas, they hav guilded me through the wolk raiding. I just got a simple question. Does the talent 'Improved Moonfire' affect the crit chance of Moonfire that provided by the t9+ 2set bonus?

Accumulating gold via the AH can be done a number of ways. What has worked for me was to focus on a number of different market areas and become familiar with average prices and price fluctuation patterns. This helps me take advantage of market gluts so I can buy low and then resell when the glut has cleared and the price starts to climb.

Having some steady income channels using consumables helps to provide regular sales to supplement your income during troughs where you are buying up low priced items.

Third, keep an eye out for AH posts with low bid prices. This could be anything on the AH. The key is the abnormal bid price that you hope to take advantage of when the auction expires.

I've managed to accrue 130k+ at the moment using these tactics and I'm probably sitting on another 40k's worth of items to sell.

The important thing to remember is patience. Be willing to buy and hold for weeks if necessary.

I do use tradeskills for income - primarily enchanting and alchemy (soon to add jewelcrafting). I've looked for niche markets to exploit in enchanting. Markets where the enchant is not something everyone can will have. Alchemy I use to make my own flasks and therefore not spend the gold. When the prices for flasks exceed material costs I'll make flasks to sell. I also use alchemy to lower my costs for epic gems by doing the new epic gem transmutes every CD.

So as you can see the fourth way I make gold on the AH is not to spend it on the AH for things I need.

Fishing... I LOVE fishing... I have leveled it on my main and also on a friend's character from 92 to max on his character... I also leveled his cooking too...

If you are interested I love Fisherman's Friend addon as it is a double click cast and it adds on lures automatically if you have them in your bags.

Or I could do it for you... I get bored. I am currently going through non-raid achievements... right now I am working on Loremaster and the ever elusive One That Didn't Get Away. I did the math, and I have fished about 50k fish to get that achievement and I still don't have it. So you can see I like to fish.